General overview of fungal allergic asthma

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Department of Immunology, faculty of Medical sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

2 Islamic Azad University, Malekan Branch, Malekan, Iran

Abstract

Asthma is a complicated disorder, whose prevalence has increased over the past few decades.
Asthma is characterized by infiltration of inflammatory leukocytes along with enhanced
proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Fungi are now far more widely being considered as the
dominant extrinsic trigger for asthma. Fungi are linked to the severity of asthma in many ways. Some
differences between studies can be partly attributed to difficulties in the standardization of mould
allergen extracts for skin-testing techniques. Allergy to fungi is associated with increased asthma
symptoms and severity, increased asthma risk, and even death. These fungi are zoonosis; pet animals
could be the main source of pathogenic fungi and infection and treatment of pets and periodic
checking with a veterinarian could help avoid fungi-allergic asthma. Attention therefore needs to be
paid to fungi infection in allergic reactions, especially in asthma.

Keywords